Closed-loop downlink transmit power assignments in a small cell radio access network

ABSTRACT

A method for assigning downlink transmit power levels to radio nodes (RNs) in a small cell radio access network (RAN) includes assigning initial power levels to the RNs. For each cell, first events are counted indicating that UEs receiving a signal from their serving cells with a signal strength below a specified value have entered a coverage hole. For each cell, second events are counted indicating that UEs have re-established a previous connection on one of the cells. For each pair of cells, a coverage hole is identified between them if the number of first events for one cell exceeds a threshold and, a number of second events or re-establishment of a previous connection on the other cell exceeds another threshold. For each identified coverage hole, the downlink transmit power level is increased of at least one RN in the pair of cells between which the coverage hole is identified.

BACKGROUND

Operators of mobile systems, such as universal mobile telecommunicationssystems (UMTS) and its offspring including LTE (long term evolution) andLTE-advanced, are increasingly relying on wireless small cell radioaccess networks (RANs) in order to deploy indoor voice and data servicesto enterprises and other customers. Such small cell RANs typicallyutilize multiple-access technologies capable of supportingcommunications with multiple users using radio frequency (RF) signalsand sharing available system resources such as bandwidth and transmitpower.

Planning a deployment of radio cells is a complex task, which requirestaking into consideration a variety of parameters. The planning isparticularly difficult for the deployment of radio cells inside abuilding. For instance, the parameters that typically need to be takeninto consideration include: a particular layout of the building,propagation and absorption characteristics of the building, specificradio interface(s) supported by the radio cells, specificcharacteristics of the radio cells, interferences between radio cells,etc. To obtain an optimal coverage, the deployed radio cells need to bepositioned close enough to each other, while at the same time minimizinginterference between them. Also, the position of each radio cell shouldbe selected judiciously to minimize the total number of radio cellsrequired to obtain optimal coverage.

SUMMARY

In accordance with one aspect of the subject matter disclosed herein, amethod is shown for assigning downlink transmit power levels to aplurality of radio nodes (RNs) in a radio access network (RAN) deployedin a defined environment. In accordance with the method, initial powerlevels are assigned to each of the RNs in the deployed RAN. For eachcell associated with the RNs, a number of first events are counted,which indicate that UEs receiving a signal from their serving cells witha signal strength below a specified value have entered a coverage hole.For each cell associated with the RNs, a number of second events iscounted, which indicates that the UEs have re-established a previousconnection on one of the cells. For each pair of cells i and j in theRAN, a coverage hole is identified between a cell i and a cell j in theRAN if a number of first events counted for cell i exceeds a thresholdlevel and a number of second events counted for re-establishment of aprevious connection on cell j from a disconnect on cell i exceedsanother threshold level. For each of the identified coverage holes, thedownlink transmit power level is increased of at least one of the RNsassociated with the pair of cells between which the coverage hole hasbeen identified.

In accordance with another aspect of the subject matter disclosedherein, a method is shown for assigning downlink transmit power levelsto a plurality of radio nodes (RNs) in a RAN deployed in a definedenvironment. In accordance with the method, initial power levels areassigned to each of the RNs in the deployed RAN. Transfer requests arereceived from a macro network each requesting a hand-in of a UE from themacro network to one of the cells. Each of the transfer requestsincludes UE history information for the UE being handed-in. For any pairof cells in the RAN, an inference is made that a coverage hole existsbetween the pair of cells if the UE history information received by oneof the cells in the pair for a given UE indicates that the given UE wasconnected to the other cell in the pair prior to the transfer of thegiven UE to the macro cell. A number of received transfer requests iscounted from which the existence of a coverage hole is inferred betweeneach pair of cells in the RAN and, if the number for a particular pairexceeds a threshold value, the downlink transmit power is adjustedupward of at least one of the RNs associated with the cells in the pair.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the subject matter disclosedherein, a method is shown for assigning downlink transmit power levelsto a plurality of radio nodes (RNs) in a small cell RAN or pico networkdeployed in a defined environment. In accordance with the method,initial power levels are assigned to each of the RNs in the deployedsmall cell RAN or pico network. A transfer request is received from amacro network requesting a hand-in of a UE from a macro network to oneof the cells in the small cell RAN or pico network. A hand-out from oneof the cells in the small cell RAN or pico network to the macro networkis identified for a hand-in session of the UE. An event is identifiedthat starts at a time of the hand-in request from the macro network andends at a time when the hand-out of the UE to the macro network isidentified. The event is counted as arising from leakage of downlinktransmission power from the cell where the hand-in occurred to a regionoutside of the defined environment if a duration of the event is lessthan a threshold amount of time. The downlink transmission powerassigned to the cell where the hand-in occurred is reduced if the numberof events counted for the cell during a specified time period exceeds athreshold value.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the subject matter disclosedherein a method is shown for assigning downlink transmit power levels toa plurality of radio nodes (RNs) in a RAN deployed in a definedenvironment. In accordance with the method, initial power levels areassigned to each of the RNs in the deployed ran. Transfer requests arereceived from a macro network each requesting a hand-in of a UE from themacro network to one of the cells. Each of the transfer requestsincludes UE history information for the UE being handed-in. For any pairof cells in the RAN, a number of events is counted that arise betweenthe pair of cells when the UE history information received by one of thecells in the pair for a given UE indicates that the given UE wasconnected to the other cell in the pair prior to the transfer of thegiven UE to the macro cell. If the number of events for a particularpair is below a threshold value, the downlink transmit power of at leastone of the RNs associated with the cells in the pair is adjusteddownward.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative mobile telecommunications environment maybe practiced.

FIG. 2 shows details of an EPC (Evolved Packet Core) and E_UTRAN(Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network where UMTS is an acronymfor Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) arranged under LTE (LongTerm Evolution) with which a small cell network may interoperate.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary deployment of a radio node (RN) in a building.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating at a high level a closed-loop powerassignment process.

FIG. 5 shows a simplified floorplan that includes adjacent cells i and jthat have a coverage hole between their respective coverage areaswithout an overlapping macrocell.

FIG. 6 shows a simplified floorplan that includes adjacent cells i and jthat have a coverage hole between their respective coverage areas and anoverlapping macrocell.

FIG. 7 shows a simplified floorplan that includes adjacent cells i and jhaving downlink power transmissions that leak or bleedout beyond thedesignated deployment area of the small cell RAN.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative mobile telecommunications environment 100in which the present invention may be practiced. The mobiletelecommunications environment 100, in this illustrative example, isarranged as an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system as described by theThird Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as an evolution of theGSM/UMTS standards (Global System for Mobile communication/UniversalMobile Telecommunications System). It is emphasized, however, that thepresent principles described herein may also be applicable to othernetwork types and protocols. For example, other network types andprotocols that may be employed include, without limitation HSPA, LTE,CDMA2000, GSM, etc. or a mixture of technologies such as with amulti-standard radio (MSR) node (e.g., LTE/HSPA, GSM/HS/LTE,CDMA2000/LTE, etc).

The environment 100 includes an enterprise 105 in which a small cell RAN110 is implemented. The small cell RAN 110 includes a plurality of radionodes (RNs) 115 ₁ . . . 115 _(N). Each radio node 115 has a radiocoverage area (graphically depicted in the drawings as a hexagonalshape) that is commonly termed a small cell. A small cell may also bereferred to as a femtocell, or using terminology defined by 3GPP as aHome Evolved Node B (HeNB). In the description that follows, the term“cell” typically means the combination of a radio node and its radiocoverage area unless otherwise indicated. A representative cell isindicated by reference numeral 120 in FIG. 1.

The size of the enterprise 105 and the number of cells deployed in thesmall cell RAN 110 may vary. In typical implementations, the enterprise105 can be from 50,000 to 500,000 square feet and encompass multiplefloors and the small cell RAN 110 may support hundreds to thousands ofusers using mobile communication platforms such as mobile phones,smartphones, tablet computing devices, and the like (referred to as“user equipment” (UE) and indicated by reference numerals 125 ₁-125 _(N)in FIG. 1). However, the foregoing is intended to be illustrative andthe solutions described herein can be typically expected to be readilyscalable either upwards or downwards as the needs of a particular usagescenario demand.

In this particular illustrative example, the small cell RAN 110 includesone or more access controllers (represented as a single accesscontroller 130 in FIG. 1) that manage and control the radio nodes 115.In alternative implementations, the management and control functionalitymay be incorporated into a radio node, distributed among nodes, orimplemented remotely (i.e., using infrastructure external to the smallcell RAN 110). The radio nodes 115 are coupled to the services node 130over a direct or local area network (LAN) connection (not shown inFIG. 1) typically using secure IPsec tunnels. The access controller 130aggregates voice and data traffic from the radio nodes 115 and providesconnectivity over an IPsec tunnel to a security gateway SeGW 135 in anEvolved Packet Core (EPC) 140 network of a mobile operator. The EPC 140is typically configured to communicate with a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 145 to carry circuit-switched traffic, as well as forcommunicating with an external packet-switched network such as theInternet 150.

One example of an access controller that may be employed is theSpidercloud Services Node, available from Spidercloud Wireless, Inc. Inthe following examples the access controller will generally beillustrated using the Spidercloud Services Node. More generally,however, in all cases any suitable access controller may be employed.

The environment 100 also generally includes Evolved Node B (eNB) basestations, or “macrocells”, as representatively indicated by referencenumeral 155 in FIG. 1. The radio coverage area of the macrocells 155 istypically much larger than that of a small cell where the extent ofcoverage often depends on the base station configuration and surroundinggeography. As shown in FIG. 1, in this example the coverage area of oneof the macrocells 155 overlaps with the enterprise 105. Thus, a given UE125 may achieve connectivity to the network 140 through either amacrocell or small cell in the environment 100.

Along with macrocells 155, the small cell RAN 110 forms an accessnetwork, i.e., an Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network(E-UTRAN) under 3GPP as represented by reference numeral 205 in FIG. 2.As shown, there is no centralized controller in the E-UTRAN 205, hencean LTE network architecture is commonly said to be “flat.” Themacrocells 155 are typically interconnected using an X2 interface and tothe EPC 140 by means of an S1 interface. More particularly, themacrocells are connected to the MME (Mobility Management Entity) 210 inthe EPC 140 using an S1-MME interface and to the S-GW (Serving Gateway)215 using an S1-U interface. An S5 interface couples the S-GW 215 to aP-GW (Packet Data Network Gateway) 220 in the EPC 140 to provide the UE125 with connectivity to the Internet 150. A UE 125 connects to theradio nodes 115 over an LTE-Uu interface.

The SeGW 135 is also connected to the MME 210 and S-GW 215 in the EPC140 using the appropriate S1 connections. Accordingly, as each of radionodes 115 in the small cell RAN 110 is operatively coupled to theservices node 130 (as representatively shown by lines 225), theconnections from the radio nodes 115 to the EPC 140 are aggregated tothe EPC 140. Such aggregation preserves the flat characteristics of theLTE network while reducing the number of S1 connections that wouldotherwise be presented to the EPC 140. The small cell RAN 110 thusessentially appears a single eNB 230 to the EPC 140, as shown.

The LTE air interface uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) for enhanced throughput and spectral efficiency. The airinterface has a transmission time interval of 1 msec along with otherfeatures to lower latency. The primary element used in schedulingtransmissions is a “resource block” (RB), and resource blocks make upframes and subframes, which in turn include both control regions anddata regions.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an exemplary deployment of RNs in a building isrepresented. Of course, more generally the small cells may be locatedindoors, outdoors or partially indoors and partially outdoors. Thebuilding comprises a floor 210, where a plurality of RNs (notrepresented in FIG. 1) have been deployed, each RN providing downlinkradio coverage as represented by the coverage areas 220, 230, 240, 250and 260 of the RF propagation transmitted by each RN. The RNs arepositioned to cover areas of the floor where communications via the RNsneed to be supported. For example, a conference room 215 is covered bytwo RNs providing the radio coverage areas 220 and 260. Furthermore, anoptimal position for each RN is determined, to reduce radio interferencebetween RNs and maximize radio coverage as shown by coverage areas 220,230, 240, 250 and 260. The coverage areas 220, 230, 240, 250 and 260 arerepresented as circles with different radii. Although shown as circles,those skilled in the art will, understand that circles are used forexemplary purposes, and the shape of the coverage areas of each RN celldepends on the type of antenna being used by each RN. The radius of eachcircle corresponds to a calculated RF propagation transmitted by RN anddepends, among other things, on the transmission power of the RN and theenvironment in which it is used.

The deployment of a small cell RAN in an enterprise is a largely manualprocess where a series of tasks such as site preparation, siteacquisition, site selection, network design are performed. Networkdesign involves deciding how many RNs are needed and identifyinglocations for their placement. Proprietary RF simulation tools may beused during this process to determine the expected signal strength atall locations within the enterprise. Inputs to this design processinclude site parameters, RN parameters and one or more design criteria.The site parameters includes parameters such as the floor plan, buildingmaterials and any interference that might arise from any macro cellsthat may overlap with the enterprise. The RN parameters includesparameters such as the maximum transmit powers of the RNs, the antennaradiation patterns and the small cell load factor, which specifies theamount of time a cell is expected to be transmitting. The designcriteria may be specified in terms of a desired reference signalreceived power (RSRP) and/or a signal to interference-plus-noise ratio(SINR). For example, the design criteria may specify that the small cellRAN should provide better than −95 dBm RSRP over more than 95% of theenterprise.

As part of the design process, the RNs are generally assumed to transmitat something less than their maximum transmit powers in order to allowsome room for inaccuracies in the design model of the enterprise.Accordingly, the downlink transmit powers of the deployment areoverprovisioned by say, 3 or 4 db of margin to account for suchinaccuracies as well as unknown and variable parameters. Thus, if, forexample, the RNs are able to transmit 125 milliwatts for each of 2antennas, the RN may be assumed to transmit about 30 milliwatts forpurposes of site design.

The output from the design process includes the number and locations ofthe RNs needed to cover the enterprise and a coverage map that shows theRSRP and the SINR across the enterprise. The small cell RAN may beinstalled in accordance with this design model output from the designprocess.

Generally there will be coverage holes that are identified after theinstallation of the small cell RAN. As part of the process to reduce andeliminate these coverage holes, radio environment monitoring (REM) scansare often performed after system installation, typically under thecontrol of the services node 130, which is used to coordinate the scans.During each scan, one RN in the small cell RAN transmits at its maximumpower and all the other RNs determine the power received from thattransmitting RN. This process is repeated until every RN has scannedevery other RN. The results of these measurements provide thetransmitted and received powers between each pair of RNs in the smallcell RAN. Since based on these measurements the transmitted and receivedpowers are known, the path loss between any two RNs can be determined.Using the path loss measurements, an algorithm can be developed toadjust the transmit powers of the RNs to better achieve the designcriteria and eliminate the coverage holes.

Despite the use of REM scans to improve the coverage of a newlyinstalled small cell RAN, a number of limitations remain. For instance,the results may not be very robust or reliable. Also, a neighboring RANor a macrocell may prevent some REM scans from being performed.Moreover, the REM measurements are made at the center of a cell (i.e.,at the site of the RN) and thus may not capture actual interference thatmay be experienced by UEs. Another problem is that leakage or bleedoutof the downlink power outside of the designated area of coverage, whichmay cause unwanted interference with UEs on other networks, is not evenaddressed by the use of REM scans.

In accordance with one aspect of the subject matter disclosed herein,methods and systems are provided which address the aforementionedproblems that arise when performing the RN downlink transmit powerassignments of the RNs in a small cell RAN after the initial systemdeployment. These methods and systems may also be periodically performedafter the system is deployed in order to account for non-static unknownproblem that may arise such as macro-cell interference or changes in theenvironment surrounding the enterprise (e.g. installation of anothersmall cell RAN in a neighboring building).

FIG. 4 is flowchart illustrating at a high level a closed-loop powerassignment process that may be employed. At step 410, an initialREM-based power assignment process is performed as described above.Next, in step 420, various performance parameters (e.g., key performanceindicators (KPI)) and other system parameters are monitored until theexpiration of a timer. Finally, in step 430 the downlink transmit powerassignments of the RNs are adjusted as necessary to improve theperformance parameters, after which the timer is reset and themonitoring step 420 is repeated.

The methods and systems described herein will be discussed in moredetail for three different illustrative use cases. In the first usecase, there is no overlapping macro cell network that is present in thearea where the small cell RAN is installed. In the second use case,there is an overlapping macro cell network present that providescoverage to UEs in the area where the small cell RAN is installed.Finally, the third illustrative use case addresses the problem ofbleedout or leakage of the RN downlink transmit power to areas adjacentto but outside of the enterprise's coverage area.

Some of the methods and systems described herein make use of informationreceived by the RNs from UEs in response to a triggering event. Suchtriggering events are defined for Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellularnetworks. In LTE networks, when a UE receives RF signals from theserving cell RN and potential RNs to which the UE may be handed off, theUE may report signal measurements, as received by the UE, to the UE'sserving cell RN using a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Measurement Report.There are multiple HO-triggering or Measurement Report-triggering events(generally referred to herein as a triggering event) defined for an LTEcellular network. When the criteria or conditions defined for atriggering event are satisfied, the UE will generate and send aMeasurement Report to its serving cell RN. Currently, there are eightdifferent triggering events defined for E-UTRAN in section 5.5.4 of the3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.331, version 12.2.0 (June 2014),titled “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project; Technical SpecificationGroup Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access(E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release12).” Each of these eight triggering events has different triggeringconditions. The discussion herein primarily focuses on the Event. A2,which refers to a situation in which the RSRP of the power received bythe UE from the serving cell RN falls below falls below some predefinedthreshold.

The first use case, in which there is no overlapping macro cell networkthat is present in the area where the small cell RAN is installed, willbe illustrated with reference to FIG. 5. It should be noted thetechniques employed in this first illustrative use case are not limitedto a small cell RAN. More generally, these techniques also may beapplied to a macrocell network. Moreover, these techniques may even beapplied to heterogenous networks (“Hetnets”) that include a combinationof small cells and macrocells. FIG. 5 shows adjacent cells i and j thathave a coverage hole 510 between their respective coverage areas. Aspreviously mentioned, cells i and j may be small cells or macrocells. Aspart of the downlink transmit power assignment process, the UE isconfigured to generate a Measurement Report upon the occurrence of an A2event, which indicates that the UE has entered a coverage hole. Includedin the Measurement Report reporting the A2 event is the identity of theserving cell and possibly the identity of other cells from which the UEreceives power, generally at much lower levels.

When the UE enters the coverage area of the cell j the UE is alsoconfigured to generate an RRC Connection Reestablishment Request that issent to the RN of cell j. The RRC Connection Reestablishment Request isa message defined by the RRC protocol that requests reestablishment of aprevious connection. Included in the RRC Connection ReestablishmentRequest is the identity of the cell to which the UE was previousconnected (e.g., cell 1). In this way the receiving RN knows that acoverage hole may exist between cell i and cell j.

In accordance with the LTE standard, RNs generally include eventcounters that are used to aggregate radio network information such ashandoff events, paging events, physical transmission powers and thelike. In the present arrangement, one such counter in each RN may beconfigured to tally the number of A2 events received from UEs andanother counter in each RN may be used to tally the number of RRCConnection Reestablishment Requests received from UEs. It should benoted that the counters does not necessarily contain a single numberspecifying the number of A2 events or RRC Connection ReestablishmentRequests that received. Rather, the counters may maintain a vectorhaving multiple entries. For instance, the counter that tallies A2events may include a vector that tallies both the serving cell whosepower has fallen below the predefined threshold and one or more othercells that the UE may report as neighbor cells when the A2 event occurs.If an A2 event does not happen to include information for anyneighboring cells, then a default entry is updated that is notassociated with any neighbor. Likewise, the counter that tallies RRCConnection Reestablishment Requests includes a vector that tallies boththe cell to which the UE is being reattached and the cell to which itwas previously attached.

A coverage hole may be identified between a qualified pair of cells iand j if the A2 event counter for cell i and the corresponding RRCConnection Reestablishment Request counter for re-establishment of aconnection on cell j from a disconnect on cell i are above somepredefined threshold. That is, while a coverage hole may exist between apair of cells i and j when the corresponding counters simply report asingle A2 event for cell i and a single RRC Connection ReestablishmentRequest on cell j from a disconnect on cell i, a more accurate andreliable coverage map of the enterprise generally will be produced bywaiting until more such counts are received before taking action (e.g.,adjusting the RN downlink transmit power assignments) to eliminate thecoverage hole.

In some implementations, instead of identifying a coverage hole when thenumber of events tallied by the A2 event counter exceeds some predefinednumber of events, a normalized number of events may be used to identifya coverage hole. In particular, in this embodiment a coverage hole isidentified when the number of events identified between a qualified pairof cells i and j if the A2 event counter for cell i and thecorresponding RRC Connection Reestablishment Request counter forre-establishment of a connection on cell j from a disconnect on cell irelative to the total number of handovers to cell j exceeds somerelative threshold (i.e., a percentage). Once a coverage hole has beenidentified the downlink transmission power assignments of the RNsassociated with the qualified pairs of cells between which the coveragehole is located may be adjusted in any appropriate manner to reduce oreliminate the hole. For instance, in one simple approach, the powerassignment of the RN associated with each cell that appears in aqualified pair may be increased by some amount. Of course, othertechniques for adjusting the downlink transmission power assignments maybe employed as well.

In some implementations instead of increasing the downlink powerassignments to the RNs, it may be appropriate to reduce the power tocertain RNs if the values of A2 event counter and of the RRC ConnectionReestablishment Request counter indicate that the call disconnects dueto poor coverage relative to the total numbers of handovers is belowsome predefined configurable threshold. A value for the counter belowthis threshold would indicate that the transmit powers are higher thannecessary to ensure that the handover success rate is above a desiredpercentage e.g. 99.5%.

The second use case, in which there is an overlapping macro cell networkthat is present in the area where the small cell RAN is installed, willbe illustrated with reference to FIG. 6. Similar to the first use case,the techniques employed in this second use case may also apply to smallcells (including picocells) and macrocells in a heterogenous network.FIG. 6 shows a coverage area 700 that defines a network that includesadjacent cells i and j that have a coverage hole 710 between theirrespective coverage areas. For convenience and simplicity of discussion,the network defined by coverage area 700 will be described below as asmall cell RAN, but more generally may be any of the network typesdiscussed above. Because there is a macrocell 730 present, there will bea handout event from the small cell RAN to the macro network when a UEleaves cell i and a hand-in event from the macrocell 730 to the smallcell RAN when the UE attaches to cell j. No pertinent action is taken onthe part of the small cell RAN when the handout event occurs. However,when the hand-in event occurs at cell j the macrocell from which thecall is being transferred sends a transfer request to the RN for cell j.This transfer request, which is typically communicated by the eNB 740 ofthe macrocell 730 over an S1 interface using the S1 Application Protocol(S1AP), contains UE history information, which is a list identifying thecells to which the UE has been connected during the current call and theduration of those connections.

Thus, when a hand-in to cell j occurs, the RN in cell j can examine theUE history information contained in the transfer request and identifythose cells in the small cell RAN to which the UE was connected prior toestablishing the connection to the macro network. In this way it can beinferred that a coverage hole exists between cell j and the cell towhich the UE was connected prior to the transfer to the macrocell. As inthe previously discussed use case, the RNs can maintain vector counterswhose appropriate entries are incremented each time the UE historyinformation indicates that a coverage hole may exist between two cells.The RN downlink transmit powers can be adjusted, to reduce or eliminatethe coverage hole after an entry in the counter exceeds a thresholdvalue.

In some implementations, instead of identifying a coverage hole when anentry in the counter exceeds some predefined number of events, anormalized number of events may be used to identify a coverage hole. Inparticular, in this embodiment a coverage hole is identified when anentry in the counter relative to the total number of handovers betweencells associated with that entry exceeds some relative threshold (i.e.,a percentage).

In-some implementations instead of increasing the downlink powerassignments to the RNs, it may be appropriate to reduce the power tocertain RNs if the values of counters based on UE history informationindicate that the number of call disconnects due to poor coveragerelative to the total numbers of handovers is below some predefinedconfigurable threshold. A value for the counter below this thresholdwould indicate that the transmit powers are higher than necessary toensure that handout rate to the macro network within the small cell RANinstallation is below a desired percentage e.g. 0.1%.

The third use case, in which there is leakage or bleedout of thetransmit power from one or more RNs in a small cell RAN or pico networkto a location outside of the intended coverage area (e.g., a building),will be illustrated with reference to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows a coveragearea 800 that includes adjacent cells i and j near the edge of theenterprise, which in this example is a building. As shown leakage of thetransmission power from the RN associated with cell i occurs at region810 immediately outside of the building.

A UE outside of the intended coverage area that approaches the coveragearea 800 in FIG. 7 will connect to cell i upon entering the region 810.An event may be defined as starting when the UE attaches to cell ithrough a hand-in from a macrocell 830 and ending when it disconnectsfrom some cell j (which might even be cell i) via a handout. The startand end time of the event may be stored by the RAN. Such events that arerelatively short in duration are likely to be due to a UE that connectedto the cell from outside the enterprise through leakage of transmissionpower from the RN. These events are thus treated as potentially beingdue to leakage. When the UE undergoes a handout, its history is examinedto determine if its connection to the small cell RAN or pico networkoriginated through a hand-in from a macrocell. If the UE did in factconnect through a hand-in from a macro network and the duration of theevent is less than some specified value, a counter in the RN where thehand-in occurred will be incremented. Once the value in the counterexceeds a predefined configurable threshold, the RN downlink transmitpower of cell i can be reduced to thereby reduce or eliminate theleakage of transmit power.

Several aspects of telecommunication systems will now be presented, withreference to various apparatus and methods described in the foregoingdetailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawing byvarious blocks, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes,algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as “elements”). Theseelements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computersoftware, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements areimplemented as hardware or software depends upon the particularapplication and design constraints imposed on the overall system. By wayof example, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combinationof elements may be implemented with a “processing system” that includesone or more processors. Examples of processors include microprocessors,microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines,gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardwareconfigured to perform the various functionalities described throughoutthis disclosure. One or more processors in the processing system mayexecute software.

Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instructionsets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, softwaremodules, applications, software applications, software packages,routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution,procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Thesoftware may reside on non-transitory computer-readable media.Non-transitory computer-readable media may include, by way of example, amagnetic storage device (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strip),an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD)),a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive),random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM(PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), aregister, a removable disk, and any other suitable non-transient mediafor storing or transmitting software. The computer-readable media may beresident in the processing system, external to the processing system, ordistributed across multiple entities including the processing system.Computer-readable media may be embodied in a computer-program product.By way of example, a computer-program product may include one or morecomputer-readable media in packaging materials. Those skilled in the artwill recognize how best to implement the described functionalitypresented throughout this disclosure depending on the particularapplication and the overall design constraints imposed on the overallsystem.

Variations of the above described systems and methods will be understoodto one of ordinary skill in the art given this teaching.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

We claim:
 1. A method of operating a radio access network (RAN),comprising: (a) assigning initial power levels to at least one of aplurality of radio nodes (RNs) distributed over multiple floors of theRAN, each RN having at least one antenna and being connected to anaccess controller configured to aggregate voice and data traffic; (b)receiving transfer requests from a macro network each requesting ahand-in of a UE from the macro network to one of the cells, at least oneof the transfer requests including UE history information for the UEbeing handed-in; (c) for any pair of cells in the RAN, inferring that acoverage hole exists between the pair of cells if the UE historyinformation received by one of the cells in the pair for a given UEindicates that the given UE was connected to the other cell in the pairprior to the transfer of the given UE to the macro cell; and (d)counting a number of received transfer requests from which existence ofa coverage hole is inferred between each pair of cells in the RAN and,if the number for a particular pair exceeds a threshold value, adjustingupward the downlink transmit power of at least one of the RNs associatedwith the cells in the pair, wherein the threshold values are based on afraction of a number of handovers that occur between the pairs of cells.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising resetting the number ofreceived transfer requests being counted and repeating steps (b)-(d)after expiration of a specified period of time.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein the services node coordinate steps (b)-(d).
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the RNs are coupled to the access controller over alocal area network (LAN).
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the RNs arecoupled to the access controller over a LAN.
 6. A method of assigningdownlink transmit power levels to a plurality of RNs in a RAN,comprising: (a) assigning initial power levels to at least one of theRNs in the RAN, wherein the RNs are distributed over multiple floors ofthe RAN, each RN having at least one antenna and being connected to anaccess controller configured to aggregate voice and data traffic; (b)receiving transfer requests from a macro network each requesting ahand-in of a UE from the macro network to one of the cells, each of thetransfer requests including UE history information for the UE beinghanded-in; (c) for any pair of cells in the RAN, inferring that acoverage hole exists between the pair of cells if the UE historyinformation received by one of the cells in the pair for a given UEindicates that the given UE was connected to the other cell in the pairprior to the transfer of the given UE to the macro cell; and (d)counting a number of received transfer requests from which existence ofa coverage hole is inferred between each pair of cells in the RAN and,if the number for a particular pair exceeds a threshold value, adjustingthe downlink transmit power of at least one of the RNs associated withthe cells in the pair, wherein the threshold values are based on apreconfigured fraction of a total number of handovers that occur betweenthe pairs of cells.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transferrequests conform to the S1 application protocol (S1AP).
 8. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising resetting the number of received transferrequests being counted and repeating steps (b)-(d).
 9. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the RNs are coupled to the access controller over aLAN.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the access controllercoordinates steps (b)-(d).
 11. The method of claim 6, wherein the RNsare coupled to the access controller over a LAN.
 12. The method of claim6, wherein the access controller coordinates steps (b)-(d).
 13. A methodof operating a RAN, comprising: assigning initial power levels to aplurality of RNs in a deployed RAN wherein the RNs are distributed overmultiple floors of the RAN, each RN having at least one antenna andbeing connected to an access controller configured to aggregate voiceand data traffic; for at least one cell associated with the plurality ofRNs, counting a number of first events indicating that UEs receiving asignal from their serving cells with a signal strength below a specifiedvalue have entered a coverage hole; for at least one cell associatedwith the plurality of RNs, counting a number of second events indicatingthat UEs have re-established a previous connection on one of the cells;for each pair of cells i and j in the RAN, identifying a coverage holebetween a cell i and a cell j in the RAN if a number of first eventscounted for cell i exceeds a threshold level and a number of secondevents counted for re-establishment of a previous connection on cell jfrom a disconnect on cell i exceeds another threshold level; and for atleast one of the identified coverage holes, increasing the downlinktransmit power level of at least one of the RNs associated with the pairof cells between which the coverage hole has been identified, whereincounting the number of first events includes receiving messages from theUEs indicating that the UEs receiving a signal from their serving cellswith a signal strength below the specified value have entered a coveragehole.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein counting the number of secondevents includes receiving messages from the UEs indicating that the UEshave re-established a previous connection on one of the cells.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the threshold levels are based on apreconfigured fraction of a total number of handovers that occur betweenthe cells i and j.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the RAN includesan access controller operatively coupled to the RNs.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, wherein the RNs are coupled to the access controller over aLAN.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein the RNs are coupled to theaccess controller over a LAN.
 19. The method of claim 13, wherein thethreshold levels are based on a preconfigured fraction of a total numberof handovers that occur between the cells i and j.